3222 AM · 539 BCE · world history
Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire
Persia takes Babylon and builds the largest empire the ancient world had seen.
Cyrus enters Babylon almost without a fight and announces a new policy: conquered peoples keep their shrines, laws and gods, and exiles may go home. The Cyrus Cylinder records it in his own words. The Achaemenid empire will stretch from the Indus to the Aegean, bound by a royal road, a postal relay and provincial satraps.
Sources
Documents of the period
- cuneiform chronicles and king lists — the Cyrus Cylinder and the Nabonidus Chronicle: the taking of Babylon and the decree restoring shrines and exiles
Scholarship
- archaeology of Mesopotamia — Pasargadae, the royal road, and the satrapy system of the Achaemenid empire
Basis: documents and evidence.